Author of Adventure Novels
Historical novels about the sea, carnival and a blog about all else.
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A Wander’s Log #blog
My Novels #novels
reading List #reading
Games #games
Dog carting #molly
Model Ship Build #model
I’ve never been to sea on a merchantman. I have worked on a carnival. The desire and the fact create the need to write about both. The sea is an adventure to have in my imagination. Memories, retold before lost, concern the carnival. Writing both novels are what I am about.
Support my efforts on PayPal franklin1k@charter.net
Blog Post
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Not a moment to lose!
I have not a moment to lose! It is a long road from hobbyist to craftsman. The best tools have been acquired. Suitable paints and glues laid in. A handful of ship models lined up for the shipyards. Now it depends on effort and time. And there I excel! There one hour stacks upon another.…
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leviathan
Nowadays whaling has a bad reputation. Back in the mid-19th century it was the valiant fight against both the sea and the dragon of the sea. Men became rich after a three to four year voyage to the ends of the Earth. The leviathan was considered evil in the Bible. A true test of a…
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splendid solitude
It’s nothing like being brought up short. Happens enough for me that I’m not sad for long. Something that could have been beautiful ends. It just started, then goes cold. Well, it happens. Doesn’t matter it was one of my favorite things. The world still turns. The next day brings new wonders. It also brings…
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read to the sea.
Voyage by Sterling Hayden hooked me into sea fiction. Almost the 19th century, a five-masted ship sails from Maine, around the Horn to San Francisco. What a great book about class, men and an iron ship. From there I devoured C. S. Forester, Herman Melville, Jack London, Patrick O’Brian and Joseph Conrad. It was all…
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Novels!
Tramp: a true steam adventure
Five years before World War Two a third mate introduces a fifteen year old boy to the merchant marine. Surviving men, seas, jungles and the tramp steamer becomes a test for the mate. A once in a life time adventure for the boy.
Read the first chapter
Tramp – chapter one – edit 3
Nine Years of a wandering life
The last year of nine years of travel a disabled man faces the future ahead. Set on a carnival in the 1980s
A work in progress in the research and outlining phase. The first chapter to come out in a couple months. Reading through all my journals of those years blear my eyes figuring out my handwriting.
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Model Ship building
When I was a kid model ship building was what I did to train the hands not to shake from mild cerebral palsy. As an old man it is done to imagine what a life at sea would have been like. The making of the ship model details a steady hand, painting with acrylic paint and much research. Books and Youtube are amazing in this day! It does not replace man against the sea in the Age of Sail and early steam. It does allow one to dream of days long gone. What follows is my journey down to the sea.
the Plan
This adventure happens in three acts. The first stage is plastic model ships. Here the kits, tools, paints are acquired. I learn the tools that are needed and not just desired. The kits bought pre-owned off Ebay to save money for paints and glues. Model acrylic paint is bought to see what it does. After a few models acrylic craft paint will be bought to save money for more books.
Stage two starts my venture into wooden ship kits. Stage three concerns building models from scratch. Here lies my true goal. A Three Island Tramp Steam exactly like the one in my novel!
The Plastic ship models
Charles W Morgan #whaler
Css alabama #Alabama
USS Constitution #Constitution
Charles W Morgan – Revell – 1:110 scale – whaling ship
This is the first kit. All the mistakes will be made here
Build log at Model Ship World https://modelshipworld.com/topic/35002-charles-w-morgan-by-frank-burroughs-revell-1110-scale-whaling-ship/
Css alabama – revell 1/96 scale – 1961 version
The CSS Alabama came in mixed shape. A quarter of the pieces were off the sprue. Rigging and assemble instructions were gone. Very unlikely all the parts are there. Washed the parts in dish-washing soap before priming gray.
U.S.S. Constitution “Old Ironsides” – revell 1/96 scale
This model came from Ebay in good shape. Looks like everything is there. It is in the garage to be primed.
reading List
The Grey Seas Under by Farley Mowat
The Half Deck by Capt. George H. Grant
The Best Loved Poems of the American People selected by Hazel Felleman
American OZ by Michael Sean Comerford
Rolling Nowhere by Ted Connover
Suspense Thriller: How to Write by Paul Tomlinson Finished
Louis L”Amour Adventure Stories part 2 by Louis L”Amour
Story Engineering by Larry Brooks (Audiobook) Finished
The Civil War by Shelby Foote Finished
Uncommon Carriers by John McPhee Finished
The Boys of ’67: Charlie Company’s War in Vietnam by Andrew Wiest Finished
Lord Jim by Joseph Conrad Finished
AI for Authors by Stephanie Ewing
Invasion: Alaska by Vaughn Heppner Finished
Damn Fine Story: Mastering the Tools of a Powerful Narrative by Chuck Wendog Finished
Structuring Your Novel by K.M. Weiland Finished
Dead Silence By S.A. Barnes Finished
Anatomy of Story by John Truby
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck Finished
Hornblower and the Island by James Keffer
Atlantic by Simon Winchester Finished
Writing for Humans and Robots by Maddy Osman
Wooden Horses and Iron Men by Dale W. Merriam, PHD, PE (ret) Finished
At All Costs by Sam Moses Finished
Writing Great Fiction: Storytelling Tips and Techniques by James Hynes , The Great Courses Finished
The Great Depression and the New Deal: A Very Short Introduction Written by Eric Rauchway Finished
The Sea Around Us Written by Rachel Carson Finished
Whale Hunting by Nelson Cole Haley
Cutty Sark: The Last of the Tea Clippers by Eric Kentley
Seafaring Lore & Legend by Peter D. Jeans
The Ship Model Assistant by Charles G. Davis
An Universal Dictionary of the Marine by William Falconer
PERIOD SHIP MODELMAKING An Illustrated Masterclass by PHILIP REED
Flying Cloud The True Story of America’s Most Famous Clipper Ship and the Woman Who Guided Her by David W. Shaw
The Lore of Ships by tre tryckare
Masting & Rigging: The Clipper Ship & Ocean Carrier By Harold A. Underhill
Wolf of the Deep: Raphael Semmes and the Notorious Confederate Raider CSS Alabama by Stephen Fox
CMS Alabama: Builder, Captain, and Plans by Charles Grayson Summersell
The “Cutty Sark”: The Ship and the Model by C. Nepean Longridge
Origins, Revised and Updated- Fourteen Billion Years of Cosmic Evolution by Neil deGrasse Tyson, Donald Goldsmith
Blogging for Authors by Barb Drozdowic
Voyage by Sterling Hayden Finished
A Pictorial History of the American Carnival Vol 1 – 3 by Joe Mckennon
Giants by Vaughn Heppner
Steele’s Amusements: Carnival Life on the Midway by Kenneth L. Miller Finished
With it: A Year on the Carnival Trail by Barbara Bamberger Scott
The Sailor’s Bookshelf Fifty Books to Know the Sea
By: Adm. James Stavridis USN (Ret.) Finished
Boat Modeling: the Easy way by Harold Payson
Ship Modeling from Stem to Stern by Milton Roth
Home of the Brave by DP Prouty
Rigging Period Ship Models by Lennarth Petersson
THE FRIGATES: An Account of the Lighter Warships of the Napoleonic Wars by JAMES HENDERSON
The Art of Rigging by Capt. George Biddlecomme R.N.
The Way of a ship by Derek Lundy
Rigging: Period Fore and Aft Craft by Lennarth Petersson
The Clipper Ships (Seafarers Series) by Oliver E. Allen
The Whalers (The Seafarers) by A.B.C. Whip
The Frigates (The Seafarers Series) by Henry Gruppe
Campaign Series: Vietnam
Dominion
Victoria 3
Transforming Mars
Factoria
Abomination: Heir of Frankenstein
Farthest Frontier
Space Corp 2025
Valheim
Ixion
Strategic Command: American Civil War
Twilight Struggle
Transforming Mars
Star Citizen
Transport Fever 2
Wadjet
Down in Flames WWII Aces High
7 Wonders
Risk
Scrabble
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Molly
Molly just turned two years old when Covid 19 reached the United States. We only had a couple months before the snow fell before then to train. Once the danger of covid became apparent I stayed indoors. Two years later Molly and I are getting outside. She can pull my wheelchair around the block to start. By the end of Fall downtown is our goal! She is English Mastiff, Black Lab and German Shepard mix
From left to right:
Tara was an Airedale Terrier that I rescued from a small cage when escrow closed on my house in San Bernardino, California. My first dog in years, you might say, came with the house.
Cassandra was a Rottweiler I enjoyed from four weeks until ten years later when she died. The sweetest dog ever created.
Noah was a Siberian Husky/Golden Lab mix. Another dog rescued from a small cage. He was a muscle with a nose on it. My first service dog I trained to pull my wheelchair, up to six hours at a time!
Shunka was a Chow/German Shepard mix. My second service dog I trained. She was a terror to people she did not like. To those she liked she was a sweetheart.
Frank Burroughs - Ink Slinger 